Windows Phone is thriving at the low-end, dying at the high-end

Windows Phone has definitely shown some very promising momentum this year and it has soundly beat BlackBerry in the race to become the world’s No. 3 mobile platform. But there’s one asterisk next to Windows Phone’s impressive growth in 2013: It’s been driven almost entirely by low-end and mid-range smartphones while it’s languished in the high-end market dominated by the iPhone 5s and the Galaxy S4. Neowin points us to the latest research from AdDuplex showing that just 1 of the top 4 Windows Phones in the world is a high-end model while the rest of the platform’s top devices are in the low-to-mid-range market.

What’s particularly interesting is that AdDuplex found that the Lumia 1020 — which is not only the best Windows Phone device on the market but has also received a very strong advertising campaign — doesn’t crack the top 10 in any market. Neowin speculates that the device’s high initial $300 price tag has scared off a lot of potential buyers and that the phone’s marketing campaign as the world’s best camera phone has made it too much of a niche device to catch on in the mass market.

The most popular Windows Phone in the world by far is the Lumia 520, a budget model that accounts for more than one-quarter of all Windows Phone devices sold in the world. While Microsoft is more than happy to gobble up market share in emerging markets with low-and-mid-range devices, the company would probably like to also have a high-end flagship device that will both increase its presence in the United States and generate higher margins than its cheaper devices.